1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and system for preventing the fraudulent use of telephone services. In particular, the present invention is concerned with the class of services in which the recipients of the telephone calls, or called party, are responsible for the charges only after they agree to accept the calls from the calling party. These services are more commonly known as "collect calls."
2. Related Art
Collect calls are almost always more expensive than direct dial calls because of the additional service the telephone company provides. In a collect call, the calling party initiates the call to the party being called, and the called party agrees to accept the charges for the call before the connection is made between the calling and called parties. The calling party is sometimes allowed to record a brief message (e.g., their name) to identify themselves to the called party. The brief message is then played back to the called party, allowing them to determine whether to accept the collect call or not.
Unfortunately, this message is often fraudulently used to let the called party know that they should initiate a call to the calling party, thus avoiding the extra charges to the called party. In operation, the called party does not accept the charges for the collect call and subsequently initiates a direct call to the calling party at a reduced direct dial rate. Sometimes the purpose of initiating a collect call is only to provide a signal to the calling party (e.g., "I have arrived at my destination"). Understandably, as the difference between the cost of a collect call and a direct dial call increases, fraudulent collect calls become more likely.
Often fraudulent collect calls result in a complete loss of revenue to the phone company providing the collect call service. The loss can be compounded if the called party subscribes to a long distance service carrier different from the phone company providing the collect call service. After a fraudulent collect call, therefore, the company providing the collect call service does not receive any of the long distance charges for the subsequent direct dial long distance call. This scenario is especially frequent when the fraudulent collect call involves international traffic.
What is needed is a method and system that will detect and prevent fraudulent collect calls. This capability allows a collect call service provider to proactively address the problems of fraudulent calls by discouraging or removing the incentive to initiate fraudulent calls, thereby greatly decreasing or eliminating the cost of fraudulent calls.